The presence of "you" in Love Sick is well-timed, and illustrative of Dylan's genius for structure. It's a song of 24 lines. In the first 18 lines, "you" occurs only once, a cameo in a dream. In that opening three-quarters of the song, the impression given is of a detachment from love and an obsession with love that seems general and pervasive. The terrain is haunted, not only by near-absences (silhouettes, a shadow and silence like thunder), but also an unnerving lack of specificity : "someone" possibly lying, "someone" possibly crying. The double use of "someone" is twinned in a later verse with two uses of "sometimes". So it's starkly cut, Love Sick, with a telling lack of detail. It relies on repetition rather than description to build atmosphere. I'm not sure if this is an original observation, or a remembered one, but it often uses the repeated tick-tock of two syllables : walking ... walking ... walking/ Did I? ... Did I?/I see, I see ... I see, I see/Sometimes ... Sometimes. Then, in the last quarter of the song, the narrator's attention turns, unswerving and obsessive, to "you". In those concluding six lines the word "you" appears five times, and gets the final say four times. This is how those last half a dozen lines end : you/wonder/you/you/do/you. It's remorseless, and almost incantatory. For three quarters of the song, the narrator has been in a sparsely sketched but deeply inscribed world of denial : and then he summons the presence ("I look at you") of the woman who this song is for.

The presence of "you" in Love Sick is well-timed, and illustrative of Dylan's genius for structure. It's a song of 24 lines. In the first 18 lines, "you" occurs only once, a cameo in a dream. In that opening three-quarters of the song, the impression given is of a detachment from love and an obsession with love that seems general and pervasive. The terrain is haunted, not only by near-absences (silhouettes, a shadow and silence like thunder), but also an unnerving lack of specificity : "someone" possibly lying, "someone" possibly crying. The double use of "someone" is twinned in a later verse with two uses of "sometimes". So it's starkly cut, Love Sick, with a telling lack of detail. It relies on repetition rather than description to build atmosphere. I'm not sure if this is an original observation, or a remembered one, but it often uses the repeated tick-tock of two syllables : walking ... walking ... walking/ Did I? ... Did I?/I see, I see ... I see, I see/Sometimes ... Sometimes. Then, in the last quarter of the song, the narrator's attention turns, unswerving and obsessive, to "you". In those concluding six lines the word "you" appears five times, and gets the final say four times. This is how those last half a dozen lines end : you/wonder/you/you/do/you. It's remorseless, and almost incantatory. For three quarters of the song, the narrator has been in a sparsely sketched but deeply inscribed world of denial : and then he summons the presence ("I look at you") of the woman who this song is for.

Thanks, it's often interesting to look at the mechanics of what Dylan does. As far as who the "you" is, ever since It Ain't Me Babe many Dylan love songs it seems like they could be to his audience, to God, to this or to that or even strictly to a woman but not so often conclusively and consistently (through a song) to any one thing.

Joined: Sun March 15th, 2009, 10:59 GMTPosts: 3741Location: In the valley of the giants where the stars and stripes explode

smoke wrote:

Trev wrote:

The presence of "you" in Love Sick is well-timed, and illustrative of Dylan's genius for structure. It's a song of 24 lines. In the first 18 lines, "you" occurs only once, a cameo in a dream. In that opening three-quarters of the song, the impression given is of a detachment from love and an obsession with love that seems general and pervasive. The terrain is haunted, not only by near-absences (silhouettes, a shadow and silence like thunder), but also an unnerving lack of specificity : "someone" possibly lying, "someone" possibly crying. The double use of "someone" is twinned in a later verse with two uses of "sometimes". So it's starkly cut, Love Sick, with a telling lack of detail. It relies on repetition rather than description to build atmosphere. I'm not sure if this is an original observation, or a remembered one, but it often uses the repeated tick-tock of two syllables : walking ... walking ... walking/ Did I? ... Did I?/I see, I see ... I see, I see/Sometimes ... Sometimes. Then, in the last quarter of the song, the narrator's attention turns, unswerving and obsessive, to "you". In those concluding six lines the word "you" appears five times, and gets the final say four times. This is how those last half a dozen lines end : you/wonder/you/you/do/you. It's remorseless, and almost incantatory. For three quarters of the song, the narrator has been in a sparsely sketched but deeply inscribed world of denial : and then he summons the presence ("I look at you") of the woman who this song is for.

Thanks, it's often interesting to look at the mechanics of what Dylan does. As far as who the "you" is, ever since It Ain't Me Babe many Dylan love songs it seems like they could be to his audience, to God, to this or to that or even strictly to a woman but not so often conclusively and consistently (through a song) to any one thing.

I'd have thought that It Ain't Me, Babe and Love Sick were really pretty obviously directed to women - however, that doesn't mean they can't also be directed to other concerns. I'd say there is a woman in Love Sick, though, whatever else she may represent.

After a couple years playing the song mostly as it's done on the record,Bob and Co. decided to slow down the song a bit more allowing Bob to dig deeper into theselyrics and find nuances not heard yet. The band is so strong and mighty here, you forget how great Larry was.From that incredible concert from Santa Cruz, here's a dirge-like Love Sick that slays like no other....

In this post, I will combine two subjects that many people (myself included) don't like:a) Bob's eventual deathb) the notion that (many of) Bob's love songs are religiousSo skip this one if you're tired of reading about either one.

Prince's death made me think about Bob dying in the (hopefully far away) future. The way people might react, the way I might react.One thing I do after artists die is look at their last set list. Which songs did they play? Which was the final song they performed?If we assume that the set list doesn't change anymore, Bob's last song would be Love Sick. The last line he'd ever sing would be "I'd give anything to be with you".I think Bob has put a lot of thought into "The SET", he has refined it many times and now repeats it night after night. I think it's no accident that he ends it with this song, this line.So, who is the "you" that Bob would give anything to be with? Some random woman? A specific woman? Or is he thinking more spiritually, does "you" stand for humanity, the universe or God?

From one of Bob's greatest shows ever, this version of Love Sickis just ridiculously good. I still contend that 1998-2000 are Bob's best years of his career...Bob chilled this song out a bit within its first year on the road but it didn't diminish its intensity...if anything, it made the song more intense and portentous....

You can get a download of this show almost anywhere, but if you really want a treat, check out HungryHoss' remaster of the 2015 Detroit show. Love Sick is better in Bamberg (because it's the set closer?), but the rest of Detroit is the finest performance/recording I've heard in years.

This version from 2011 (a new recent favorite year) is just plain bad-ass.I love how raw and dirty these shows were as compared to where Bob & Co. is at these days.This version sums up the dark soul of 2011 better than any other IMOJust check out this bitter rendering to see what I mean....amazing harp solo here!!

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